Bitcoin

There are many gambling sites and some of them are accepting Bitcoins. Some other sites were created based on the Bitcoin protocol and they generate their random numbers based on that. Users tend to trust more a website that shows exactly how they generate their results instead of just have faith from a black-box gambling site. One of those websites is SatoshiHunt which has look of a retro slot machine and everything is open to its players. Satoshi Hunt is based completely on the Bitcoin protocol and you can win up to 100x your bet. Players are anonymous, you don’t create account and you don’t provide personal details like name or email. Playing is simple, you send a bet which should be between minimum and maximum allowed bet and seconds later the slot machine is spinning and you see your result. After you win you will get the amount won back in few minutes depending on the Bitcoin network.

In a previous post, a week ago, we mentioned that Wikipedia now accepts Bitcoin payments for their donations. Their donations in Bitcoins reached the amazing number of $140000 so we can say that this was a good move from Wikipedia. There are people with many Bitcoins there ready to spend them on something they believe. Several companies and organizations gathered money they wouldn’t get without Bitcoin acceptance. This is good news also for Bitcoin and its community. I believe we will see more success stories like this in the near future.

Bitcoin is accepted by many merchants, websites, individuals and companies for different reasons. Wikipedia announced that they now accept Bitcoin payments for their donations. If you like Wikipedia and you wanted to donate by keeping your anonymity now you can do it. I am glad to see that Bitcoin is accepted by more people in a daily basis. A year ago it was almost for exchange, investors and enthusiasts. Now, several big companies accept it as a payment method and you can buy almost anything. Even recently, I purchased a new hosting and in the payment options I saw Bitcoin, I didn’t expect that, it was a nice surprise.

One of the most popular websites to book hotels and find traveling tickets, one of the biggest travel agencies now accepts Bitcoin payments. Expedia will accept Bitcoin payments only for hotel booking first and then for everything else. This move will help them get a market share of Bitcoin fans and especially from the early adopters that they have many Bitcoins to spend. It also help them for marketing purposes since they are from the first serious players accepting Bitcoin payments and it is big news. Bitcoin is still volatile and many day traders exploit that fact to make profit. Bigger players have also plans to accept Bitcoin and its price will rise even more than the last maximum. Happy traveling and be a middle adopter of Bitcoin to enjoy a brighter future.

Lookout Mobile Security recently found a new Android malware called Coinkrypt. This type of malware is not harmful as it doesn’t steal personal data or delete anything but instead it uses the smart phone hardware to mine crypto-currencies such us Bitcoin and Litecoin. Mobile hardware is not very powerful to mine Bitcoins with profit but using many smartphones that are not theirs generates profit. In order to be more difficult for users to be suspicious about Coinkrypt, it mines crypto-currencies only when the device is charging. Otherwise, the battery level will drop significantly very fast as mining Bitcoins or any other crypto-currency uses all the available resources if you don’t put a limit. This might also cause heat and damage your device if it is heated for an extensive period of time.

It seems that MtGox users are striking back. Mark Karpeles reddit account hacked and information about balances leaked on that account. The user that posted the leak says that MtGox still has the Bitcoins and most probably Mark Karpeles is lying about the balances. There are 500 million reasons why he would lie about it but I don’t think that everything is going based on his plan (if this was his plan). Leak contains his home address and surprisingly his C.V! I can’t confirm if the data is real but several MtGox users verified their balances. They filed for another bankruptcy protection, this time in US court. This issue needs to be solved and soon.

MtGox, the once largest Bitcoin exchange site lost hundreds thousands of Bitcoins. How is that even possible? Noone believe that such thing can happen without even notice it. Ok, someone claimed he did get his Bitcoins, support checks it and send more, a second one claims the same, be suspicious and investigate it. After you lost 100 Bitcoins, 1000, 10000 it is noticeable, I don’t believe they had to loose more than 700.000 Bitcoins to realize that something is wrong with their system. This must be an inside job, at least 1-2 people were aware of this and they did nothing, or even worse exploited the issue for their own benefit. Many customers of MtGox are very angry and I am afraid that we will see paybacks after the official announcement of their lost money.

Most Bitcoin news are coming from BitPay and they don’t stop to surprise us. They announced their new API which allows employers to pay their employees with Bitcoins on a recurring basis. It worth to mention that only the net salary is paid in Bitcoins. It is amazing how far the Bitcoin has come in the last few months and this is just the beginning, it is going to be very huge soon. This also solves the problem of how and where to buy Bitcoins, you get them as a salary or a part of it. BitPay is the leading payment processor for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. They are now adding around 1000 new merchants per week. I dream of the day that it will be possible to buy almost anything with Bitcoins, use it in everyday life and not have to convert it to fiat.

I was minutes ago since I wrote the last blog post about Bitcoin acceptance and I stumbled upon a new article about Bitcoin which is very interesting. A private jet service announced that they are accepting Bitcoin as payment for their service. PrivateFly.com is not for everyone since their target is big pockets and this move shows that everyone is endorsing Bitcoin. It was requested by their customers which means that people want to spend their Bitcoins to buy stuff and services and not just hold them as an investment. You choose your flight and when you are prompted to pay choose Bitcoin as the preferable payment option. This is another collaboration with BitPay which shows that it is the most active Bitcoin payment processor.

There are many news about adult companies that started accepting Bitcoin so instead of creating one post per each I decided to write only one post. There is movement in Bitcoin community and they try hard to make Bitcoin wide accepted and so far 2014 looks very promising. Porn.com, one of the biggest adult websites accepts Bitcoin as payment. It is not the first website with adult content that accepts Bitcoin but it is the largest one and it is very good news for both Bitcoin and its users. Instead of giving your Paypal account or credit card number you can pay with an anonymous Bitcoin wallet.